The ongoing EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will give a critical impact on the economy and lives of the people of Northeast region where development lags behind the rest of India, a memorandum submitted by the North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF) to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohon Singh stated.“If an ambitious deal is reached between EU-India, the indigenous people will simply not benefit, instead it will undermine their rights,” the memorandum added.NEDF also alleged that the EU was pushing for WTO and intellectual property provisions and that the provisions of the agreement would give an adverse impact to the generic medicine sector particularly ART, anticancer drugs and others. An unfair system of patenting will lead to an increase in the prices of essential drugs and medicines, making them inaccessible for large sections of the population, the memorandum cautioned.Free and fair prior consent of the people specially farmers, women groups, indigenous peoples, health groups, people’s organizations and setting up of an independent commission to review FTA, were the other demands put forward through the memorandum.Through the memorandum, NEDF demanded release of white paper of the agreement and urged for immediate action from the PM to make open and transparent the EU-India Free Trade Agreement.